


Slices of Life at Avengers Tower

by orphan_account



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Artist Steve Rogers, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Avengers, Slice of Life, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Team as Family, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23614003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: One shots of the Avengers focusing on Steve Rogers and the team as a family. Feel free to request something you would like to see :)Mostly a mixture of fluff and hurt/comfort and my attempt at humourAll one shots exist in the same universe though aren't necessarily in chronological orderUpdates (hopefully) every Tuesday :)
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Steve Rogers, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton & Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts & Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Avengers Team, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Thor, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Comments: 66
Kudos: 122





	1. Moving in

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys....I'm back.
> 
> I know I'm an absolute gremlin. I don't even have an excuse. I guess I've kind of lost my motivation for Voltron, but probably not forever! In the meantime, please enjoy these one shots. I can't promise regular updates but I will try my hardest. 
> 
> I won't lie to you, this chapter is mainly a set up to the series but it's important.
> 
> Also, a few quick things to mention:  
> This takes place after the first Avengers movie and before anything else.  
> This takes place as if the events of first Avengers movie happened recently, mainly so it's easier for me to write because I've kind of forgotten how things were in 2012 haha  
> Also, I know in the movies and most comics this is not canonical, however, I want Steve to be 21 so. Steve is 21 in this.  
> Also also, please enjoy and I've probably forgotten stuff but oh well!

No one had ever officially ‘moved in’ to Avengers Tower. Hell, Tony had never even _offered_ for them to move in. They all had places of residence besides the tower, but over time, one by one, they slowly trickled in.

Immediately after the Chitauri attack, whilst eating shawarma, Tony had made it clear that each member had a room at the tower, and were welcome if they ever needed somewhere to crash for a few nights. Bruce had instantly taken him up on that offer, and eventually both he and Tony dropped the pretences that he would be leaving any time soon to go back to his life of living in remote parts of the world in hiding, barely having food and shelter to his name. It was never officially stated, but Bruce lived at Avengers Tower.

The next member to become a regular at the tower was Thor. During (and after) Loki’s trial, Thor was between Realms quite often, and more often than not he spent his time on Earth at Avengers Tower. Although he often visited Jane, he kept his belongings at the tower, and it was always the first place he went whenever he came to Earth. Admittedly, it could be argued that Thor doesn’t really _live_ at the tower in the sense that he doesn’t really _live_ anywhere on Earth. Of all the Avengers, in the end, Thor is the only one who really fit the description of Tony’s initial offer: to stay at the tower for a few nights if they ever need somewhere to crash (Thor often took this metaphor, like most metaphors, literally, slamming into Tony’s roof so hard whenever he landed that it left a crater and thousands of tiny cracks bleeding off of it). Thor was only ever on Earth for a couple of weeks at a time at most anyway.

Natasha and Clint soon followed, and like most things they do, they did it together. It started with a mission, which was easier completed from the vantage point Avengers Tower offered. After spending 3 days and 2 nights straight camped out on the roof, taking shifts sleeping, followed by a rather long fight it was fair to say that they were both exhausted by the end of the mission. Rather than go back to their SHIELD apartments, they had deemed it more efficient to simply spend the night in their rooms at the tower. From then on, they found that most missions ended far closer to the tower than to SHIELD, and so they found themselves staying at the tower more often than not. Eventually, the ‘not’ just stopped happening entirely, and so whenever Black Widow or Hawkeye weren’t on a mission, you could most likely find them on one of the many floors of the tower.

That left Steve. 

Don’t get him wrong, it’s not that Steve _disliked_ the apartment SHIELD had given him – it was simple, uncluttered with only the basics, and one bedroom – it reminded him of his old life. However, Steve’s life was becoming bland, monotonous, living alone in the basic apartment with barely 3 items of decoration to his name.

He was still getting used to the new century, and the change in society, so going out was something he limited, but he desperately wanted someone to _talk_ to. And yeah, he knows, that’s really sad, and a bit pathetic, but its _true_. And the worst part was, he was sure he’d have made friends in the new century by now, except people couldn’t seem to get past that fact that he was Captain America. No one was seeing _Steve_ because they were so shocked by the Captain.

Even the cashier when he went grocery shopping that one time had barely managed to get his total out without passing out, and when he’d attempted to start a conversation with a lady in the park when he went out for a jog she’d been unable to answer apart from whispering “Captain America”, snapping a picture on her phone and then walking away in a daze. 

So yes, it was fair to say Steve was excited to leave that old apartment behind for Stark Tower. Especially if it meant he’d not only get roommates, he’d get roommates who’s lives were so wild that a super soldier who’d been frozen for the past 70 odd years would hardly cause them to bat an eyelid.

The only thing stopping him from moving in was the lack of invitation. He was aware that none of the other avengers had been invited, and he was almost certain that if he just showed up and started living in the tower Tony would hardly care, but Sarah Rogers was sure to raise a polite son. So his manners were preventing him from trying. It was frustrating, really. For what felt like the first time in forever, Steve knew exactly what he wanted, and exactly how to get it, but he couldn’t because he didn’t want to ruin the fragile hold on the only thing he could call close to friendship in this new century. 

So he sucked it up, and tried to carry on with life as normal. (As normal as life 70+ years in the future could get). He gradually got use to the higher prices of items. Over time, leaving his apartment became less and less daunting, and he found himself going for jogs every morning through the park. But secretly, every day, he was waiting for his chance out of that apartment, out of the same, tedious routine.

As it turns out, that opportunity came exactly 2 months and 4 days after Steve woke up in a new century. 

On his daily jog (for anybody else, a dead sprint) through the park, he found himself lost in thought, and didn’t see the other jogger running straight for him. Luckily for Steve Rogers, that other jogger was Natasha Romanoff, who easily twisted away from the crash, likely seeing it coming from miles away. Reaching out, she snagged a hand around his wrist, stopping his thoughts _and_ his run. Effortlessly ducking under the (clumsy) swing she had earned for startling him out of his thoughts, Natasha smiled at him, acting as if nothing had happened.

“Natasha! I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise it was you, I never would have-”

“Rogers, long time no see.” Natasha breezily cut him off, as though he hadn’t even been speaking.

“Yeah, I guess it has been, hasn’t it? How are you guys getting on? I heard you’re all living with Stark now?” He tried valiantly to keep any sign of jealousy out of his tone, though she was the _Black Widow_ , so chances are she picked up on it.

She hummed in agreement, though remained silent for a moment, appearing to study him. As the silence became awkward, she continued “I was just heading back now, actually, care to join me?” Steve opened his mouth to protest, but she swooped in again before he could. “I’m sure everyone would love to catch up.”

“I need to shower.” Steve protested weakly.

Scoffing, she countered “Stark _has_ got showers, you know.”

Finding he had no other arguments (and surely it would be bad manners to turn her down) Steve found himself nodding.

When they arrived back at the tower, Natasha lead him through the lobby to the only elevator with no queue around it. 

“Why isn’t anyone using this one?”

Smirking, she answered “Avengers only.”

The doors slid soundlessly shut behind them, before a voice spoke up.

“Good morning, Captain. I am JARVIS, Sir’s AI. I am programmed throughout the tower, and I am here to help. Do not hesitate to ask for anything should you need assistance.”

After everything he’d been through, Steve wasn’t going to be surprised by some ghost voice. Besides, he had a vague idea of who JARVIS was from the fight, as Tony had frequently said things seemingly to himself, addressed to ‘JARVIS’. Originally, Steve had assumed that was the suit’s name, though it made sense that the suit and the tower were connected. 

Trying to sound smooth and not at all thrown off, Steve answered “Nice to meet you JARVIS, and please, it’s just Steve.”

If Natasha was impressed by his open-mindedness to technology, she didn’t show it, instead saying “66th floor, please, JARVIS.”

“Certainly, Natasha. Shall I alert the others of yours and Steve’s arrival?”

“Please.”

Almost instantly, the doors were sliding open again to reveal the common room Steve remembered vaguely from the fight. To Steve it was unnerving in a way, that he hadn’t even felt the elevator move.

Numbly, he followed Natasha to the couch facing the floor-to-ceiling windows, sitting stiffly on the plush cushions, while she lounged comfortably next to him.

Clint arrived shortly after, sweating from just finishing a workout, but his face brightened instantly when he saw Steve.

“Cap! How are you, man? It’s good to see you.”

“Hey Clint, how’ve you been? Stark driving you crazy yet?” He smirked.

“Hey!” Came an indignant squawk from behind them, and Steve turned to see Tony grinning in the door way, using an old rag to clean the oil off of his hands. 

Schooling his face into an innocent smile, Steve stood up to greet him “Hi Tony, I hope you don’t mind me dropping by.”

“Don’t worry about it Spangles, like I told everybody, you guys are always welcome here. What brings you round?”

“Natasha invited me, said it would be good to catch up.”

“Anything particular in mind, Nat?” Tony quirked an eyebrow up at her.

“I was thinking we could play a couple games, have a little chat and whatnot.”

Clint’s eyes widened, and his face split into a grin. “Mario Kart tournament.”

“No. Absolutely not.” Tony replied instantly, arms folded across his chest and back straightened. 

And that’s how they found themselves spending the day doing a Mario Kart tournament. Tony was abysmal, there was no other word for it. The only person he could beat was Steve, though once Steve picked up the controls and what the different power-ups did, he was leaving Tony in the dust.

For the first half of the day, it generally came down to a last minute victory by Nat or Clint, who remained head-to-head for practically the whole race, until one of them pulled out a shell just before the finish line.

However, the second half of the day was split evenly between Clint, Natasha and Steve, who they found out was absolutely ruthless when it came to Mario Kart. He didn’t hesitate to ram them off the road, or blow them up or make them slip on a banana, as long as it meant he won. In Tony’s defence, as the day wore on, he improved, though he got nowhere close to the other three.

At lunchtime, Bruce came up to briefly chat with Steve, though regretfully told them he had only come up to grab some lunch, as he had a very time-sensitive experiment going on in the lab (though that didn’t stop him from getting JARVIS to keep an eye on it while he watched the others play a few rounds). 

Before they knew it, the sky outside had turned dark and, at JARVIS’s prompt, they put away the game. Stretching, Steve stood up, grabbing his water bottle before turning to the others.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you guys around.” He couldn’t help but let a little disappointment leak into his words. He began to make his way towards the elevator, but he faltered at the quizzical expressions of his teammates. 

“What?” He asked, puzzled.

“Aren’t you living here now?” Tony looked equally as confused as Steve when he asked this.

“ _What?_ ” Steve repeated, though his words were painted with a whole knew kind of bewilderment this time.

“I don’t know. It’s just, all the others just showed up and never left one day, I thought this was your…” Tony trailed off, still looking highly confused, though this time at his own words. “I mean, of course you can go home, I’m not trying to _kidnap_ you, and you have your own apartment and-“

“Am I allowed?”

“What?”

“Am I allowed? To live with you guys, that is.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Of course.”

Live at the tower? With all the other Avengers. That sounded… well, to be honest, that sounded like chaos. A super soldier, two spies, a Norse god, an eccentric billionaire and mild-mannered man hiding a giant green rage monster alter-ego. All under one roof? It was just asking for trouble.

“Then I’d love to.” Steve said decisively, grinning.

He’d never been good at avoiding trouble anyway.


	2. Presents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Tony's birthday, but what do you get a billionaire?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, two chapters in two days, this is unlike me haha.
> 
> Anyway, than you so much for the interest shown in chapter 1 and I hope you enjoy :)

It was Tony’s birthday tomorrow, and it was fair to say Steve Rogers was freaking out. What do you get the man who has everything? After spending at least a week frantically trying to figure out what on earth Tony could possibly want for his birthday, Steve had caved and asked JARVIS for help.

Uncertainly (because try as he might, Steve still found it hard to talk confidently to no one), he called out “JARVIS?”

“How may I help, Steve?”

“I was just wondering if you had any idea what I could get Tony for his birthday?”

“It’s my opinion that Sir would appreciate a hand-made gift much more than any store-bought item.”

“Right…but I’m really no mechanic, even back in the day when I was familiar with ‘modern’ technology.”

“If I may, captain, it may help to go to the room labelled ‘Store Cupboard’ on the 53rd floor?”

Puzzled, Steve paused, before deciding he should probably just trust in whatever the AI was suggesting. After all, since he’d arrived at the tower, JARVIS had been nothing but helpful.

A short elevator ride later found Steve on the 53rd floor, cautiously approaching the door, whose plaque read ‘Store Cupboard’.

“This the room, JARVIS?”

“That would be the one, Captain.” Steve thought he could hear a hint of humour in the AI’s voice, fairly certain he was amused by Steve’s apprehension upon entering a store cupboard.

Slowly, Steve pushed the door open, though he was pleasantly surprised by the contents of the room. In the corner stood an easel, facing a wall made entirely of floor-to-ceiling windows giving one of the most spectacular view of the city Steve had ever seen. The wall on the left was covered in shelves holding every colour and kind of paint Steve could imagine, as well as pencils, pens, chalks, charcoal and oil pastels.

Before he’d even realised it, Steve found himself shutting the door behind him and marvelling at all of the different mediums. Though Steve had enjoyed art back before the ice, he’d never had access to so many different, high-quality products before. A cupboard stood at the back of the room near the door, and upon opening it Steve found countless canvasses of different sizes and shapes.

“What is this place, JARVIS?”

“It was built in the renovations of the tower after Loki’s attack. One of the builders told Sir it would be a waste to shut off such an incredible view, and suggested they make it a studio of sorts so perhaps an artist could capture it some day. Sir agreed, though he’s never organised for anyone to paint it.”

“So you think I should paint him something for his birthday?”

“I think he’d like that.”

Smiling, Steve paused for a moment, before carefully selecting a pencil and canvas, setting it on the easel.

“JARVIS? Could you bring up some pictures of Tony and Pepper please?”

It took the rest of the day and all night, but Steve managed to finish it in time for breakfast. Walking into the common room, he found Bruce cooking pancakes in the kitchen. It looked as if he’d been up for a while, as a mountain of pancakes sat in the oven remaining warm from the slight heat radiating off of it.

Bruce smiled warmly, greeting him and explaining what he was doing. “This is my present to Tony. He says I make the best pancakes, and I thought it would be a nice surprise to wake up to.”

Nodding, Steve couldn’t help but agree, the smell already making him hungry. Gesturing to the mountain of pancakes, he asked “How come you made so many?”

“We’ve got two super-appetites to feed.” Bruce replied easily, pointing at both himself and Steve. 

“You didn’t have to make enough for all of us. Though I’m not complaining.”

“Ooh, is Bruce making his famous pancakes?” Clint’s voice drifted into the kitchen from the hallway, announcing his and Natasha’s arrival.

“Now all we need is Tony.” Nat smiled

“I shall alert him of the request for his presence.”

“Thanks JARVIS.”

Just as Bruce finished serving up the pancakes, Tony arrived, his face splitting into a grin as he realised what was for breakfast. “Aw, Brucie-bear you shouldn’t have.”

“Happy birthday, Tony.” Bruce laughed.

3 servings of pancakes later, they were all happy to move on from pancakes, as Natasha pulled out her gift to Tony.

Eagerly, Tony tore off the wrapping paper, revealing a new, expensive coffee maker. Attached was a small note reading _”I, Clint Barton, hereby swear not to use, or even touch, this coffee maker, punishable by whatever Tony Stark deems necessary_ with Clint signature scrawled along the bottom.

“I figured after Clint destroyed 3 in one week you might want one that he cant touch. And he _wont_ , I made sure of it.”

“It’s perfect.” Tony grinned.

Next was Clint, who pulled out a box with the same wrapping paper as Nat’s, though his was smaller. Inside, sat a pair of sunglasses with blackout lenses and bright red frames. When Tony put them on, however, words seemed to materialise on the lenses. The right frame read “I am” and the left frame read “Iron Man”. They were clearly made for children, though Tony got a kick out of them, thanking Barton through his laughter.

Realising he was the only one left, Steve stood up, announcing he had to go get his from his room. He was nervous the paint hadn’t dried in time, but found his worries were for nothing once he’d retrieved the painting, completely dry.

Arriving back in the common room, Tony got a look of confusion on his face as he realised Steve was holding a canvas. Smiling shyly, Steve held it out to Tony, suddenly horribly scared Tony would hate it.

Silently, Tony stared at the painting for what felt like forever. It was a simple portrait of Tony and Pepper; the were sat happily on the beach outside their home in Malibu, Pepper wearing a simple cover-up over her swimsuit and a floppy hat. She was playfully splashing Tony, who was wearing an ACDC shirt and swimming trunks, as he splashed her back. Both of them were smiling in a rare, relaxed way, enjoying the simpler things while they could. Despite the manic look in both their eyes as they attempted to win the splash war, it was clear they were in love. Happy had managed to snap the photo, and when JARVIS told him Steve was looking for a good reference photo to paint from, he was happy to hand it over.

“Where did you get this from?” Tony asked softly, eyes never leaving the painting.

“Happy gave me the photo, he got it when you went on holiday, he thought you’d like it.”

“You mean you painted this?” He asked, in awe.

“Uh, yeah. Do you…like it?”

“Like it? Steve, I love it. It’s incredible.” Steve thought there might have been tears in Tony’s eyes, though he blinked them away just as quickly as the came.

“I didn’t know you could paint like that, Steve.” Nat whispered. She’d read his SHIELD file, so she knew he enjoyed it, but she had no idea he was this _talented_.

“Yeah, its amazing, really.” Bruce added.

“Thanks, guys, but it was really nothing…” Steve insisted, uncomfortable under all the praise.

“Nothing?” Clint squawked. “Steve, this belongs in a museum! Its…”

“Breath-taking.” Tony finished, “Really, Steve, thank you so _so_ much.”

“Of course, Tony. Happy birthday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayyy artist Steve! As always, please please please give me any suggestions in the comments!


	3. Civil War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short guys! I've got another chapter written though so expect that soon!

“Tony, _please_.” Steve begged, voice ragged with emotion.

“I’m sorry, Steve. You know I never wanted this to happen.”

“How can you stand there and say that after everything you’ve done.” Steve’s voice dripped with disgust.

“What do you want me to say, Steve? It’s not my fault you couldn’t stand up to me. This was never my intention, but it’s too late now. You can’t stop me.”

“I can’t let you win.”

“I don’t see how I can lose.”

“I should’ve known better than to trust you, Stark.” Clint cut in.

“Oh please, Clint, you and I both know you were out of this battle before it even started.” Tony snarled.

“You keep saying its too late, Tony, but it’s _not_. You can redeem yourself. Take it back and I’ll pretend this never happened.”

“Steve I _can’t_.”

“You can, Tony, _please. Please don’t do this_.”

“I have to.”

“No!” Steve shouted, lunging forward. But it was too late. 

Tony’s hand came down, placing the object on the ground.

The plus 4 card stared Steve in the face.

“UNO.” Tony whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, this is not an original idea, I'm sure its been done a million times, but I had to redeem Tony for Mario Kart. Originally I was going to do Monopoly, but this kind of ran away from me. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed anyway! And as always, please please please comment any requests you have :)


	4. Technology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers are happy to help Steve with technology, it's the least they can do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the slightly longer wait on this one, but I've decided that updates will most likely be once a week (as much as possible anyway!) I felt like I was getting a bit ahead of myself before by posting whenever I wrote a new chapter, so while I can't promise I'll have a chapter up in exactly a week, I'm going to try my best to stick to a schedule!

“Sir, Captain Rogers requires your assistance in the common room.” Jarvis’s voice cut cleanly through the ACDC blasting within his lab.

“Tell him I’m on my way up.” Tony replied, standing and stretching out his back, which had spent last 3? 4? (who even knows?) hours hunched over his current project.

Swiftly, the elevator doors opened, revealing Steve sat on the sofa, scowling at his phone.

“What’d you need my help with, Capsicle?”

“Oh, hey Tony. I was just wondering how you,” Steve looked up at him, a sheepish grin on his face, “uh, how you take a photo with this thing again?”

“Seriously, Steve? C’mon, I explained this to you when you got the phone.”

“I know, I just forgot.” Suddenly, Steve’s eyes were wide and he was getting his patented Puppy Dog Eyes. As a scientist, Tony deemed it physically impossible to say no to him when he looked like that. “And, its all so confusing nowadays…”

“Ok, Cap, I’ll help you out. Just, pay attention, ok?”

“Thanks Tony.”

“So, you open up the home screen.”

“Right, the, uh, the… home…screen...?”

Sighing, Tony pulled up a chair. This would take a while.

Clint walked into the kitchen, only to find Steve staring intently at the microwave.

“Are you…ok, buddy?”

“Hm? Oh, hey Clint. Yeah, uh, how do I turn this thing on?”

Clint blinked, before trying his best to answer without sounding condescending. “It’s…already on. You just have to tell it what to do. What do you want to do?”

“Oh, just heat some soup.”

“For how long?” Clint pressed.

“2 minutes?”

“Ok, so you just turn this dial here. No, no, not that far, that’s an hour. A bit more than that, that’s only 30 seconds. You know what? Why don’t I give it a shot?”

The avengers had a group chat. They didn’t use it often, the main reason being that when they’re in the tower they prefer to communicate via JARVIS.

The second reason being Steve’s messaging technique.

No matter how often they attempted to explain it to him, he just couldn’t seem to grasp the concept that they were informal, and were supposed to be _short_. A text message from Steve Rogers was an essay, complete with formal greeting and polite sign off.

After receiving a text from Steve reading:

_Dear Bruce,_

_I hope you’re doing well, are you by any chance free later this evening to attend a ‘Movie Night’, as Tony described it? I hope to see you there._

_Yours Sincerely, Steven Grant Rogers_

Bruce prepared himself to give the talk again.

“JARVIS, could you ask Steve to come see me please?”

“Certainly, Dr Banner.”

A few moments later, and Steve was walking into his lab.

“Bruce? JARVIS said you wanted to see me.”

“Hi, Steve, yes, would you like to take a seat?”

Despite looking obviously confused, Steve obligingly took a seat on the stool opposite Bruce.

“Now, Steve, do you remember what we said about how texts are written?” Bruce tried really hard to sound kind and not patronising.

“They’re pretty informal. They shouldn’t be longer than 20 words if you can help it.” Steve recited.

“Great. How long was the message you just sent me?”

Pulling out his phone, Steve took a painstakingly long time to unlock it and locate the messaging app.

“Is that including the greeting and sign off?”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Bruce took a deep breath before replying, “Steve, there shouldn’t _be_ a greeting or sign off.”

A short pause. “Oh. Gee, I’m sorry Bruce, I guess I forgot. I know it can be real frustrating trying to teach me all this stuff, so I’ll try my hardest to remember next time.”

Damn that kicked puppy look.

“It’s ok, Steve. I’m not mad, I was just trying to remind you.”

“Ok, Bruce. Well, if that’s all you wanted…?”

“Yep, you’re free to go. And what wont you put in your next text message?”

“A greeting or sign off.” Steve said with a grin.

The next day, Bruce and the rest of the avengers received a text reading:

_Dear Avengers,_

_I thoroughly enjoyed our movie night last night, and would gladly do it again next week. Thank you for a lovely night._

_Yours Sincerely, Steven Grant Rogers_

Bruce gave up.

The plane ride back from their last mission was long, so Natasha had plenty of time to observe Steve while he wrote up the mission report on his laptop. Or attempted to, at least.

For the past 5 or so minutes, he had been staring at the screen, eyebrows furrowed, as he seemingly pressed buttons at random, each press of a button appearing to cause his frown to deepen.

Eventually, she caved, asking “What’s up, Rogers?”

Startled, his head whipped up, face red from realising she’d been watching him struggle.

“How do you, um, stop the letters from being capital?” he asked, blush deepening.

Smiling she clarified “You mean you have caps lock on?”

That just seemed to confuse him more.

“Forget it. You just need to press the button with the arrow on.

Staring at his keyboard for a minute, Steve slowly pressed a key. 

“That just moved me down a line.” He said, accusingly.

“No, no, the up arrow.”

Glancing up at her, he tilted his head to the side. 

“That moved me up a line.”

“No, the one on the right of the keyboard, near the ‘a’ key.”

A moment of silence passed as he pressed the button, followed by pressing a few keys experimentally. Instantly his face brightened. 

“Thanks, Nat.” He said sheepishly.

“No problem.” She replied breezily. Because it wasn’t, really. The Avengers may gripe and moan about Steve’s constant questions and need for help surrounding technology, but they couldn’t really blame him. Even people born in this century often have trouble with modern technology, so they could hardly demerit a man whose memory of a few months ago was 1945. They were happy to help.

Then they received a text to the group chat. From Steve. No greeting or sign off, it was simply a link to a youtube channel. _His_ youtube channel. With countless videos of the Avengers attempting to help him as he ‘struggled’ with the technology, filmed secretly by JARVIS. Each video had over one million views, his most popular video being ‘How do I make Google do the thing’ with over 30 million views.

Another text followed, reading:

_Sorry guys, but you made assumptions, and it was too damn funny. Anyway, I got bored of having to pretend I didn’t know how to unlock my phone and texts were taking too long. But look on the bright side, PR says its great publicity_

Shaking her head, Natasha put her phone down and looked at all the avengers, minus Steve, who had requested they all gather in the common room. They all made a mental note: never underestimate Steve Rogers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> This was completely inspired by this post: https://wombatking.tumblr.com/post/118419692958/constancebone-acieux-fic-where-all-of-the so please check it out! When i read it I knew I had to write a chapter about it.
> 
> Also, please let me know if you want to see a second part where the Avengers confront Steve :)


	5. Clint + Steve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was prompted by iluvharrypotter172!! Thank you for the idea!! I hope you enjoy :)
> 
> Steve gets hurt while on a mission, and unfortunately it has to get worse before it gets better...
> 
> Alternately titled: "Take a shot every time the author uses italics" because apparently I was very determined to put italics in this one lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!! This contains description of injury! It includes description of a broken bone and treatment of it!! If that is at all troubling to you, please be careful and take care of yourself <3 
> 
> Also, I am by no means a doctor and know nothing about medical treatment, so I'm sorry if this is inaccurate, please don't be angry uwu

Clint hadn’t liked this mission from the start. It was cold, it was raining and they were in the middle of nowhere to fight these _things_. Thor had called them some fancy name, claiming to have ‘Bested them once before’ and he was ‘Not afraid to best them in battle once again!’. And while they weren’t necessarily _difficult_ to defeat, they sure as hell were _annoying_ to defeat. 

You see, these seemingly innocent looking creatures had a habit of blowing up once they sensed they were close to defeat, the only warning they gave beforehand was a sudden change in colour from a dark red/brown to yellow, granting their opponent about 3 seconds to get away. The thing was, they didn’t even create a big explosion, just enough to throw you to the ground and singe your suit should you not get away fast enough (Clint found _that_ out the hard way).

They weren’t expecting any injuries aside from maybe a few bruises and superficial cuts here and there. So they were somewhat caught off guard when Steve had started to yell, only to cut off unnaturally half way through. 

“Steve?” Tony had asked, and they all waited a beat for his answer, waiting to see whether he had simply been surprised or if he was hurt. When no answer came, Clint started scanning the field for him.

“When was the last time someone saw him?” Clint barked out, a combination of worry, exhaustion and the poor conditions making his training kick in.

“I saw the Captain last around the south side of the hill.” Thor boomed, briefly pausing to point Clint in the right direction. 

Feeling his heart sink, Clint started off towards the other side of the hill. Steve had been cut off from the others, so he had no back up, as they had all been fighting as a group on the opposite side of the hill. Clint didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed, or why Steve hadn’t spoken up.

His breath caught in his throat as he rounded the hill to find a crater in the ground. It looked as though a bomb had gone off. The crater was about 2 and a half meters across and 1 and a half deep. What puzzled Clint though, was that when the creatures exploded, they left barely more than a dent in the ground, let alone a crater this big. For an effect of this magnitude, a fair few of them would’ve had to have exploded at once… _oh_.

Discarding those thoughts for now, _they didn’t matter, he needed to find Steve_ , Clint span in a circle on the spot, eyes landing on a figure slouched on the ground, leaning against the base of the hill. Rushing over, Clint cursed under his breath as he noticed the blood smeared against the stone behind Steve’s head. Trust Steve to find the only section of the hill not covered in a layer of cushioning grass to bash his head into.

“I’ve found him, guys, he’s unconscious though.”

“Is he injured?” Nat’s voice came back, smooth and calm as ever.

“Now checking. Suspected head injury.”

Crouching down, Clint gently shook Steve, hoping to rouse him.

“C’mon Cap, let me see those baby blues.” He murmured, mostly to himself.

Slowly, Steve’s eyes blinked open, unfocused and tired, but at least he was conscious.

“Hey, Steve. How’re you feeling? Hurt anywhere?”

“Hm? Clint? Head hur’s” He mumbled, eye’s slipping shut again.

“Hey, Steve, I need you to stay awake for me, yeah? I know your head hurts but I need you to answer some questions for me, ‘kay?”

He didn’t get a response, but Steve opened his eyes again so he took it as a win.

“Can you tell me who’s president?”

“Roosevelt. Wait – no, ‘s Truman. Wait, no, I’m – ‘s the future. Wha’s his name? Donald. Tump.”

“Well done, and can you tell me what you last remember?” Clint asked, checking Steve over for other injuries as he went.

“We were on a mission. I was separated, surrounded. They all…’sploded.”

That made sense, although the revelation did nothing to make him feel better. Steve had been abandoned by his team mates and been surrounded and overcome by the enemy. By this point, Clint had reached Steve’s legs, and he barely touched his left leg before Steve was hissing in pain, eyes squeezing shut.

“Sorry, sorry,” Clint muttered “Are you ok? What hurts?” even as he said this, he continued to check Steve’s leg, quickly coming to the conclusion that it was broken. Mentally kicking himself, he’d been so preoccupied with the head injury (that he’d already deemed a mild concussion – which may have been worrying for another team mate, Clint was able to push aside because of Steve’s healing) that he hadn’t even noticed a broken bone. But he had to cut himself some slack. It wasn’t _immediately_ obvious Steve’s leg was broken; it was a clean break barely setting his leg at an angle. (But Clint’s trained for this _he should have seen it_ \- no, he can beat himself up about this later. Right now, Steve needs help.)

Pressing a finger to the comm in his ear, Clint murmured “Broken femur. Clean break but painful. How long for med evac?”

A beat, and then “Too long. His bone will partially heal in that time; you’ll have to set it now.” Bruce sounded concerned, Clint could picture him worrying his lip between his teeth, as he considered what to do.

Forcing nausea down, Clint looked again at the break, trying to discern the damage. It’s a good thing Clint is trained in field surgery. While he wasn’t happy about it, Clint knew he _could_ , objectively, set Steve’s bone. Or at least, that’s what he thought, until he encountered another problem.

“Bruce. What if it’s already started to heal wrong? I don’t think I’ve got the strength to break and reset Steve’s bone without it getting…messy.” Because, again, _objectively_ Clint _could_ break Steve’s bone and then reset it, but it would be a sloppy break. Clint wasn’t exactly trained to break someone’s bones _nicely_. At least, not a big bone like the femur (fingers and toes were a different story).

Quiet cursing followed, before the reply came. “Tony, we need you.”

A louder curse and an undignified squawk later, Tony was spluttering “I’m not _breaking_ Steve’s leg! That’s- that’s awful, I-“

“ _Tony_ ,” Bruce cut in, cleanly “You’re helping him in the long run. Think of it that way. Right now, his bone is only partially healed, so the sooner we do this, the less painful it’s going to be.”

It was quiet for a second, as though Tony and Bruce were having a silent conversation. Apparently, Bruce won, because Tony heaved a loud sigh before landing next to Clint, face plate retracting so he could get a clear look at Steve.

“Hey, Cap. I’m real sorry about this, try and remember that.” Tony offered, a weak smile gracing his face.

“It’s okay, Tony. I trust you.” Tony smile twisted into a grimace, matching Clint’s own. Steve didn’t even know what Tony was apologising _for_ yet, and he was already accepting it and forgiving him.

“We’re gonna have to reset your bone, Steve. And it’s…well, it isn’t going to be barrel of laughs, that’s for sure.” Clint explained, watching Steve’s face carefully.

Despite not being all there, due to the concussion (which Clint suspected was already beginning to fade; he was becoming more coherent by the second), Steve appeared to dawn an expression of deep understanding. “Yikes.” He said eventually, laughing humourlessly.

“Yeah, that about sums it up.” Tony agreed dejectedly.

“Hey,” Steve reached out, grabbing Tony’s arm. “It really is okay. You’re doing me a favour.”

“Yeah, everyone keeps saying…”

“No, _really_. You know, before I went down in the ice, I broke my arm on a mission with the Howlies. It healed wrong because no one wanted to reset it when it was only partially healed. It was way worse getting it reset fully healed. Next time, Bucky re-broke it for me. Sure, it wasn’t great, but it was nothing compared to having a fully healed bone broken.”

Tony still looked unsure, before Clint cut in “Can’t you just do it from outside the suit?”

Frowning, Tony replied “Afraid not. JARVIS can’t _do it_ so much as talk me through.”

“Then let me do it. Give me the gauntlets and tell me what to do.”

Barely a second’s hesitation before Tony was instructing JARVIS to detach the gauntlets. Soon, Clint found himself wearing both items. 

“You ready Steve?”

“Whenever you are.” It really wasn’t helping that Steve sounded so nervous. Tony must’ve agreed, because he stepped out of the suit and knelt down next to Steve, a hand pressed to his shoulder in silent support. Wordlessly, Clint took out a knife and cut one of the leather straps from Steve’s belt, handing it to Tony. Gently, he pressed it to Steve’s mouth, and Steve allowed it to rest between his teeth. 

“Okay, grip Steve’s leg just above and below the break and apply pressure in opposite directions. After it’s broken, JARVIS should be able to reset it for you.”

Clint tried not to flinch at the resounding crack that followed, though he did have to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment. He was surprised at how quiet Steve was until he opened his eyes to find tears silently slipping down his cheeks, which had turned ash-white, and his chest rising and falling so quickly Clint was surprised he was getting _any_ oxygen.

Tony was somewhat frantically muttering to him, clearly attempting to calm him down but not quite succeeding. Slipping his hands from the gauntlets (which automatically reattached to the suit) he crawled over to join Tony by Steve’s head.

As softly as he could manage, Clint wiped the tears off of Steve’s cheek with one hand, and slipped the make-shift gag out of his mouth with the other. Slowly, he brushed Steve’s hair off of his forehead, which had stuck there through a mixture of rain, sweat and blood. He swept his hand through Steve’s hair, doubling as a comforting motion and a check of his head injury. He found it at the back of his head, mostly healed shut by now, though some blood was still trickling out. Looking up, he noted that Tony had one hand on Steve’s chest, the other pushing Steve’s hand into his own chest, exaggerating his breathing in an attempt to get Steve to slow his own.

After a couple minutes, Steve had somewhat calmed down, though he was still (understandably) pale and shaky. His features were pinched into a grimace of pain, though he offered a weak smile to them both.

“Thanks.

“Please don’t- don’t thank us.” Clint answered, perhaps a bit too quickly. Silently, Tony nodded in agreement, looking a little pale too. Clint imagined he himself wasn’t looking much better. 

“Are you guys all good now?” Natasha’s voice cut through over the comm.

“Yeah. All good.”

“Great, because me and Thor are pretty much finished up here. Bruce, ready with the quinjet?” 

“Still about 20 minutes out.”

“Roger.”

A few minutes later, Clint looked up to see Natasha and Thor rounding the hill.

“Hey Nat, Thor.”

“Hey, how’re you doing?” She nodded at Clint in acknowledgement before directing the last part towards Steve.

He gave her a wan smile, ignoring the bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face. “Just peachy.”

“You look like you’re having fun, sorry we missed the party.”

“Oh yeah, great party, you would’ve had a blast.” Stark agreed, and Clint was happy to note his trademark smirk was back full-force, as though he were finally beginning to shake off the shock of what just happened.

“So the captain is okay?” Thor’s thundering (lol) voice dripped with concern.

“Yeah, big guy, I’m okay.” Weakly he reached out, patting Thor’s arm gently.

“I am glad to hear it, shield brother. I beg your forgiveness that I was not there to aid you in your time of need.”

Sobered, they settled into an uneasy silence, and it was clear to everyone that they were all feeling the weight of guilt. Except, perhaps, to Steve, who’s eyes had drifted shut as the fatigue once again hit him.

“Hey, Cap, c’mon man. I said no sleeping, remember?” Clint carefully nudge his arm. “You’re still concussed; I want you awake until Bruce can check you over.”

“You know, I’m not actually a medical doctor.” Bruce’s voice came in over the comms.

“Yeah, but you’re the closest we’ve got.”

“There’s literally a whole team of medics at Shield.”

“If _your_ going to convince Steve to go to Shield medical, then yeah, fine. But I think we both know he wont do it.”

“Damn right I wont.” Steve grinned at him.

Bruce audibly groaned in frustration, causing Steve to break off into laughter. It was somewhat contagious, and soon they all found themselves unable to contain their humour, even Bruce.

“No one on this team has _any_ ground to stand on, you know that right?” Steve huffed through his laughter.

This prompted more laughter as each member recalled their most recent escapes from medical.

“Remember when Clint threw a pen across the room as a distraction and then just _sprinted_?” Bruce managed between breaths. “And it _worked_? On a room full of _trained spies_.”

Another round of laughter started at that, bordering on hysterical. Tony had tears running down the side of his face, and Clint was laughing so hard he was silently shaking. 

It was only when Steve jostled his leg, causing him to break off into a harsh gasp that they stopped laughing. His face drained of all colour as he tipped his head back against the wall, eyes tightly shut.

Almost instinctively, Clint’s hand returned to Steve’s hair, and he felt Steve relax a little under his touch.

“How long, Bruce?”

“A couple minutes, hang tight.” Clint figured Bruce had pieced together what had happened.

Once Steve and the others had made it onto the quinjet ( _that_ had been a struggle. At one point, Steve slipped and all his weight landed on his leg. Immediately, he’d passed out, his yell getting cut off as soon as it left his mouth), Bruce had set about checking Steve over. In less than 10 minutes it had been determined that he had a mild concussion, a break in his femur and a sprained ankle (Clint was a little annoyed that Steve had failed to mention _that_ little detail, though he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt because the broken bone may have been a _little_ distracting.). 

As soon as the diagnosis had been given, the others allowed themselves to relax, because, while it sucked that Steve was in pain now, it was nothing that wouldn’t be fully healed within the next few days. But even though they allowed themselves to relax, they didn’t let themselves forget. Never again, they vowed, would Steve be abandoned and surrounded like that. They, of course, knew that it was a hazard of the job, that it could happen to any one of them, and realistically they couldn’t _really_ promise anything of the sort. But doing so now eased their conscience, and they very rarely let themselves indulge in such a thing, so it could be excused, they decided. They would make this easily broken vow, but they would not forget it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you enjoyed!! I love hurt/comfort so much but I'm not amazing at it....please let me know if it was too rushed or unnatural or anything, because this is a genre I would really like to improve at!! I would also like to get better at writing Thor, so please, if you have any tips, don't hesitate to let me know!!
> 
> Also, the aliens were entirely inspired by minecraft creepers lmao
> 
> As always, please please please feel free to leave any requests you have because I would love to write them and will get to it asap!


	6. Stress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Literally just Steve getting a headache and Tony being soft

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry its another short one today but I'm currently writing a longer chapter that should hopefully be up next time :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Tony glanced over at Steve for the third time in as many minutes. It was clear _something_ was bothering him, he just wasn’t sure _what_. Locking eyes with Natasha (who he’d noticed was also stealing subtle looks at him every now and then), he raised an eyebrow in question. Almost imperceptibly, she shook her head in response. Tony received her message loud and clear: _leave it. He’ll speak to us when he’s ready._

Sighing, Tony returned to his work on the Stark pad in front of him, but found himself unable to focus. Just as he would manage to lose himself in his work, he’d catch sight of the blond sat on the sofa opposite him, eyes squinting as he typed up a mission report for Fury, pausing every so often to rub his temples or pinch the bridge of his nose. _Headache_ Tony though bitterly, because Lord knows he’s familiar with them.

Shooting another look at Nat, this one practically begging her to _do something_ , she sighed softly, standing up from her seat by the window and making her way over to Steve’s sofa. Silently, she stole the laptop from where it sat on the coffee table in front of him.

“Nat, what’re you doing?” Tony blanched at the lack of emotion in his voice apart from a vague hint of exasperation, like he was reaching the end of his tether with _something_.

“Talk to us.” She replied simply, and, _oh_. ‘Us’. Tony was involved in this too. That wasn’t the deal. He had begged _her_ to do something. But she was shooting daggers at him with her eyes, so he found himself putting away his work and turning his full attention to Steve.

“About what?” The annoyance in his tone was more obvious this time around, and Tony was beginning to wonder if perhaps they should have left him to deal with whatever this was on his own terms. 

“You know what.” Natasha made it clear she wasn’t playing games.

“Enlighten me.” Apparently Steve didn’t _care_ , and Tony would be impressed by his defiance to Natasha of all people had he been in the mood for games too, however he was firmly Team Tasha for this one. 

“You’re clearly suffering from a headache or something, Steve. We’re just trying to help.” Tony tried, tilting his head to make eye contact with him. They held it for several seconds, a silent staring match, before Tony pressed on. “Please, just talk to us.”

Upon hearing those words, Steve seemed to deflate, letting out a long, whooshing sigh. “Stress headache.” He admitted, quietly. And, boy, Tony was no stranger to those. 

“Taken anything for it?” Natasha asked, voice more gentle than Tony had ever heard it.

“Nothing works. Bruce’s working on something, but until then…” He trailed off, scrubbing a hand down his face, letting his eyes slip shut.

Tutting, Tony stood up, stretching his back out and strolling over to Nat and Steve. He couldn’t believe he was going to do this. “I can’t believe I’m going to do this.” He repeated aloud. Nat shot him a quizzical look, obviously wondering what it was he couldn’t believe he was going to do, though Steve either didn’t hear him or was purposefully ignoring him. Tony decided to go with the former of those two.

Huffing, he sat himself beside Steve, shot Nat a look as if to say _I don’t want to hear a word about this_ (she shot one back, looking affronted that he had the gall to threaten her, even with a look), before reaching forwards and pulling Steve back by his shoulder so that his head rested in his lap. He was surprised by the lack of resistance he received from Steve, a testimony to how bad he felt, although Steve did squint up at him as if to say _What are you doing?_.

Quietly, so as not to aggravate Steve’s headache further (which Tony was beginning to suspect was verging on migraine territory, based on the fact that Steve was admitting to and expressing pain), Tony explained. 

“Back at MIT I used to get a lot of headaches and migraines. Sure, a few were from hangovers,” He shot a glare at Nat as she rolled her eyes none too subtly, “ _but_ , most were from stress. Rhodey caught on eventually, and used to help me out when meds weren’t enough. He’d do these crazy head massages that would work wonders for my migraines. Now, I’m no Rhodey, but I picked up a few tricks after so many years.”

Gently, he brushed a hand through Steve’s hair, repeating the motion while the other hand came up to gently rub at his temples. Immediately, Tony felt Steve’s previously tensed muscles relax, and the lines on his face smoothed out, eyes once again slipping shut. Smirking at Natasha’s look of surprise he swapped hands, allowing him to work on the other side of his head. Wordlessly, Nat pulled Steve’s legs up onto the sofa, disappearing only to return a few minutes later with a blanket, which she draped over him.

“JARVIS, dim the lights please.” She murmured, “And try to keep the others off of this floor.” Turning to leave, she paused, adding: “Oh, and one more thing, JARVIS? Could you snap a picture for me?”.

_Oh she was good_. The worst part was, Tony doubted he would ever get any revenge blackmail on her.

Steve’s breaths had evened out and become slower, though Tony didn’t dare stop for fear he’d wake up again. Sighing, he resigned himself to sitting and petting Captain America’s hair for the rest of the afternoon. _Sorry Pepper._ He thought _looks like I wont be getting those emails done today._

Oh well. There were worse ways to spend his afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Sorry if it seemed out of character, I'm still trying to figure out how to set up dynamics between these two without it seeming forced or uncharacteristic. Please let me know if there's anything you think I could improve on, and as always please feel free to leave any requests!


	7. Senses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was requested (a long time ago lmao) by PerplexingParadoxialPerson who wanted something about Steve's enhanced senses!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I am....so sorry. Although I really vibed with this prompt, I could not, for the life of me, write this. I started writing this literally months ago but it was like, terrible. So this is the result of me rewriting it about 4 times. But anyway! I hope you like it!
> 
> Also thank you so much for the prompt!!

After days of tracking the guy, and analysing his escape patterns, the Avengers had managed to track him down. It hadn’t been easy, given his completely average description (I mean, come on, short brown or blond hair and brown eyes, average height and build? That could be half on New York), but now they finally had him, and they _would not_ let him get away again.

This ‘mystery culprit’ had been releasing toxic gasses into largely populated areas, seemingly attacking famous or influential people while they attempted to do mundane things like laundry, or buy groceries. Thankfully, no one had been permanently injured, although plenty of celebrities and innocent civilians had ended up in hospital because of him. Somehow, he always seemed to evade cameras, so they were forced to base their plan of attack off of eye witnesses and the minimal camera footage they had.

After weeks of tracking, they were sure they had him, but the pressure was on; this was one of the only chances they’d get. Just because no one had been severely injured (or worse, killed) yet, didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be the next time he struck.

So there they stood, huddled outside a warehouse in the middle of a forest. The wind was blowing, carrying the strong scent of pine resin, and causing the trees to rustle all around them. The building in front of them seemed as though it were crumbling to dust as they watched, making it clear it had been abandoned for years. Vines crawled up the sides, and the security light above the door had long since smashed. 

On the fairly long plane ride here, Steve had studied the map, committing it to memory. The warehouse had two entrances: the one in front of them, facing west, and one around the corner, facing south. Each entrance could only be reached through one corridor, which would make trapping him a lot easier. Steve just had to make sure all bases were covered.

“Tony, Thor, you guys take the South entrance, Nat, Clint you’re with me on the West entrance.”

“Aye aye, Cap’n!” Clint grinned, giving a jaunty salute. 

“Alright,” Steve smiled to his team mates, fastening his shield to his arm, “Lets get this son of a bitch.”

Slowly, Steve eased the door open, careful not to let it creak. He had been pleasantly surprised to find it unlocked, although now the knowledge only served to unnerve him. _Why make it so easy?_. Still, he pressed forward, reaching a room with three corridors leading off of it.

“Ok, this is where we split. That corridor should lead to a storage room, and this one leads to a computer lab. Clint, you take the store room, Nat, you take the lab, and I’ll take the third corridor. Eventually they all converge again, we’ll meet up then.”

“Got it.” Nat agreed, face set in firm determination. Silently, they took their respective routes.

Dust sat heavily in the air, coating each breath Steve took as he stalked as silently as he could through the building. If memory served correctly, his corridor should lead directly to the meeting point, with a couple office-like rooms branching off every now and again. He always hated splitting up on missions. He knew that his teammates were more than capable of looking after themselves, some more so than him, but that knowledge did nothing to quell the worry he felt being unable to visually keep track of them.

“Iron Man, Thor, report?”

“Nothing yet, Captain, though we remain vigilant.” Thor answered after a moment.

“We found a sample of gas in one of his rooms, but JARVIS says the structure seems different to the gasses he’s used before, so it looks like we’re either dealing with one of his older trials, or one that he’s developing now.”

“Good work, guys. Run it through the labs with SHIELD or the ones at the tower?”

“SHIELD.” Nat chimed in, “They need to know the specific threats as they come, and that way they can log it into the database as they go.”

“You know I could log it into their database too,” Tony grumbled to himself, “It would barely take me like, 5 minutes to hack in.”

“Sh, guys, I’ve got a feeling about this room.” Clint cut in, and faintly they heard the sound of a door opening through the comms.

“That’s what you said about the past _five_ , Clint.” Nat hissed back, although she remained quiet afterwards.

“Yeah…nothing.”

Huffing, Steve rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the door to his right. Unlike all the others he’d come across, this one was locked, and the glass window on the front was purposefully frosted so that no one could see in, where the others had simply built up dust over time.

Using his shield, he rammed into the door, not meaning to but hitting so hard he knocked it off his hinges. He barely caught it before it slammed into the ground. He didn’t want to make _too much_ noise, just in case.

Inside sat a table, similar to one you may find in a conference room. Atop the table sat a map of the compound they were in, identical to the one he’d studied on the plane ride here. There was one difference though, and his heart stopped as he realised what it meant. Spaced out on the map were 5 small discs, each painted to represent one of the Avengers. Steve’s was painted like his shield, and sat on the map exactly where he was now, in this room. Natasha’s and Clint’s were placed in their respective hallways, about halfway through, and were painted black. Natasha’s had her red logo on it, while Clint’s had a silver arrow. Tony’s was red and gold in a pattern similar to the faceplate of his armour, while Thor’s was grey with a crude depiction of Mjolnir on it. They sat next to each other, in a room labelled ‘Testing Lab 3’, which was just a little way in from the South entrance.

Stomach lurching, he asked; “Thor, Tony, where are you now?” 

“Some kind of lab, we’re looking for any more samples. Why; you need us Cap?”

“What’s the lab called?” 

“Something like Test Lab 3, or like Lab Room 3, I don’t remember what it said, but I can check the door again?”

“Testing Lab 3?” Steve croaked out, head spinning.

“…Yeah, that’s it. How’d you know?”

“Cap, what’s going on?” Clint asked, when Steve failed to answer.

Pulling out his Stark phone that Tony insisted they take on missions, because ‘what if we get separated and our comms go out, huh Cap?’, he snapped a picture of the table, sending it to them all.

“What the…?”

“Does that mean they know where we’re-“

“Are they watching us?”

“Cap get out of there.” Nat commanded, an urgent note to her voice that Steve was so unused to hearing that he found himself turning and hurrying to the door.

As soon as he stepped across the threshold, the lights in the already dark hallway snapped off, and a figure sprinted past. Immediately giving chase, Steve yelled “I got someone! Everyone to my position, now! We’re in chase!”

Despite the darkness of the hallway, his eyes soon adjusted, allowing him to see a little better, though the man was at an advantage, as it was clear he had planned for this.

“We lost you, man, it’s too dark and this place is a maze.” Steve was vaguely aware of Clint’s voice through the comm, though his main focus was keeping track of the man.

Swinging around a corner, he watched as the man sprinted through and around, back towards the entrance that he, Clint and Natasha had initially entered through.

“He’s leaving the building! West entrance!”

Temporarily blinded by the light as he burst through the double doors and out into the sunlight, Steve faltered, squeezing his eyes shut out of reflex. Forcing them back open, he was greeted by Thor and Tony running towards him, and the sight of the man disappearing into the woods on a motorbike.

“Anybody know of any towns or cities he could be heading to?”

“It’s mainly farmland and forest around here,” Nat supplied, appearing on his left with Clint, “although there’s a small village off in that direction.” 

Following her line of sight, Steve nodded once sharply. “That’s the direction he went in. How do you want to play this?”

“Me and Nat will stay here until SHIELD arrives. This could be a bluff. And even if it isn’t, there’s bound to be evidence left in there, and we need to be able to convict this guy.” Clint decided, “You, Thor and Tony chase him down, and me and Nat will meet you there with SHIELD.”

Turning to his teammates, Steve found them all to be in agreement with Clint’s plan, so he smiled, nodded once before turning to the direction the man had fled in.

“You guys ready?”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Ready when you are, Capsicle.”

“Then let’s go.”

Half an hour of straight sprinting later, Steve found himself wishing he’d stayed behind with Clint and Natasha. Either side of him, Tony and Thor where flying at top speed, expertly dodging through the trees and shrubs, leaving Steve to keep pace with them while trying not to trip over roots or stones. About halfway through their chase, they’d found the motorbike abandoned, although squashed plant life and snapped twigs told them he’d continued to run in the same direction. 

Just as he thought there was no way he could keep up with Tony and Thor any longer, the trees gave way to a street. 

Decorating it were banners and stalls, lights were strung through the trees and bunting adorned doorways and lampposts. Music rung throughout the street and people were bustling around everywhere.

“Looks like some kind of fair…” Tony mumbled, mostly to himself.

Under the guise of surveying their surroundings, Steve attempted to catch his breath and slow his racing heart, though apparently he wasn’t as subtle as he thought.

“You ok there Gramps? D’you need your walker?” Tony was grinning, clearly enjoying himself.

Smiling back, Steve replied “Sorry Tony, I’m a little tired. You guys really didn’t hold back, huh?”

“Aw, c’mon, we were only going…holy shit. We were going 120mph. Never mind Cap, take your time.”

“I’m good.”

“Of course you are, Captain!” Thor agreed, clapping him on the shoulder, and Steve pretended not to notice the laughter in his voice or the smile plastered across his face. Tony, however, made no attempt to hide his laughter as the action of Thor patting Steve on the back prompted him to, once again, lose his breath.

Laughter stopping short, Tony suddenly pointed down the street, in the direction of what seemed to be a playground. “There! That our guy?”

Following his line of sight, Steve instantly recognised a flash of movement through the crowd, and caught sight of the man just in time to see him sprint into the town hall. 

“Town Hall!” He yelled, already rushing towards it, not checking to see if Tony and Thor were following.

Crashing through the doors, Steve was somewhat surprised when no one gave him even a second glance, though he thought he might have heard someone mutter about ‘Avengers impersonators for the kids’, it was a little hard to tell over the chatter of the occupants. 

Steve felt his heart sink, realising that there were countless people in the room who matched the description of the man they were chasing.

Apparently, Tony and Thor came to the same conclusion, as they both let out heavy sighs.

“What’s our plan, Cap?” Tony asked, but Steve was focused, intent on _quiet_ , so all Tony got in response was a sharp ‘ _Shh!_.

He could feel Thor’s and Tony’s eyes on him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind, scanning the room intently, because if he could just pick up on… _There!_

Immediately he dashed to the far end of the room, roughly pinning the man’s hands behind his back and shoving him against the wall.

“Woah, Steve, are you sure that’s our man? You can’t just attack a civilian!” Tony exclaimed, rushing over in an attempt to halt Steve’s movement. 

“No, Tony, this is our guy. Listen, his heart’s beating a mile a minute, almost as if he’s been running. And he stinks of sweat, but also like the pine forest. _And_ that warehouse was crumbling while we stood in it. There’s small pieces of dust and rubble all over his clothing!”

After a moment of silence, Tony finally asked “You realise there is no possible way for me to know any of those things right? Like normal people can’t hear heartbeats or smell the faint residue of pine forest, you know that right?”

Another pause, before “Yeah. Yeah I know that. Of course I know that. I just…forget, sometimes, is all.”

“I thought you had an eidetic memory.” Tony smirked.

Rolling his eyes, he huffed out a laugh before answering “You know what I mean.”

“I do not wish to interrupt yours and Stark’s- what did Darcy call it? Banter? But you do still have a man trapped.” Thor cut in, trying and failing to conceal his amusement as he gestured to the man still struggling in Steve’s grip. “And,” He continued, “A great many spectators.” This time he gestured to the crowd of civilians who had gathered around them.

“Oh. OH. Right. Yes.” Clearing his throat and hoping his attempts to hide his blush were successful, he turned to Tony, switching from his ‘Steve Rogers voice’ to his ‘Captain America voice’ (As Clint liked to say), he said “Iron Man, can you handle crowd control and and ensure a way for us to transport this man to the correct authorities. Thor, could you contact Hawkeye and Black Widow and update them on the situation please.”

“On it.”

Sitting on the plane ride back to the tower, Steve became aware of his teammates eyes on him.

“What?” He asked, suddenly self-conscious.

“Just wondering how on earth you heard a man’s heartbeat and smelled the faint, _lingering scent of pine forest_ from at least 10 metres away, through a crowded hall full of other people, at least half of which were speaking.” Tony replied, tone changing from casual to disbelieving the further through the sentence he got.

Making a face of confusion, Steve shrugged. “You already know my senses are enhanced.” 

“I _knew_. I guess I just never really thought about it.” Clint said after a moment passed. 

Unsure what to say, Steve just shrugged again.

Another minute passed, before Natasha asked, “How enhanced _are_ your senses? There’s no straight answer in your shield file.”

Thinking for a minute, Steve realised he didn’t actually know. He began to shrug again, but faintly heard his mother’s voice in his head telling him to ‘use his words, he’s being impolite’, so he aborted the movement, choosing instead to say: “I, uh, I’m not sure. Howard did a couple of tests, but he never told me the results so if they got lost then…yeah, I don’t know.” He finished lamely.

“You don’t…know? That really feels like something you should know.” Tony replied, grimacing.

“Yeah…I mean, I guess I never really thought about it. Part of me still forgets I’m not just some sickly kid from Brooklyn.”

Tony hummed thoughtfully in response, though no one said anything after that. The rest of the ride home was in silence as the exhaustion set in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. Again, I'm so sorry for the wait. I was originally planning to do two chapters, this one and then one where Steve's senses cause him issues, so let me know if thats something you guys would be interested in? Also, I'd like to do one where they test Steve's powers (I kind of set it up at the end of the chapter) so let me know if thats something you might like?
> 
> I did some -research- and most people agree that Steve can run between 120 and 125mph at his fastest and I really liked that so that was unnecessarily added in there lol. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! As always feel free to leave any requests below, and I'll do my best to update on time next time lmao
> 
> EDIT 16/07/2020: I made a tumblr!! please come interact with me!! it’s daffodils-and-daisies 😌

**Author's Note:**

> There we go! Chapter 1! I don't know, I just really enjoy the idea that Tony is bad a Mario Kart and Steve is great at it. I feel like that would crush him because "How the hell can Capsicle beat me at a video game but can't even work a microwave?!". Like I said in the summary, please please please comment anything you want to see because I absolutely love prompts!


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